Charles W.J. Withers's Books

Placing the Enlightenment

Thinking Geographically about the Age of Reason

By: Charles W. J. Withers

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Placing the Enlightenment

Thinking Geographically about the Age of Reason

By: Charles W. J. Withers

The Enlightenment was the age in which the world became modern, challenging tradition in favor of reason, freedom, and critical inquiry. While many aspects of the Enlightenment have been rigorously scrutinized—its origins and motivations, its principal characters and defining features, its legacy and modern relevance—the geographical dimensions of the era have until now largely been ignored. Placing the Enlightenment contends that the Age of Reason was not only a period of pioneering geographical investigation but also an age with spatial dimensions to its content and concerns. Investigating the role space and location played in the creation and reception of Enlightenment ideas, Charles W. J. Withers draws from the fields of art, science, history, geography, politics, and religion to explore the legacies of Enlightenment national identity, navigation, discovery, and knowledge. Ultimately, geography is revealed to be the source of much of the raw material from which philosophers fashioned theories of the human condition. Lavishly illustrated and engagingly written, Placing the Enlightenment will interest Enlightenment specialists from across the disciplines as well as any scholar curious about the role geography has played in the making of the modern world.

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358

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University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226904075

ISBN 13

9780226904078

Geography and Science in Britain, 1831-1939

A Study of the British Association for the Advancement of Science

By: Charles W. J. Withers

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Geography and Science in Britain, 1831-1939

A Study of the British Association for the Advancement of Science

By: Charles W. J. Withers

Using as its central example the British Association for the Advancement of Science this is the first book-length treatment of this leading body for the promotion of science for more than 25 years and the first ever of British geography's civic history.

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296

Published Date

ISBN 10

1526116715

ISBN 13

9781526116710

Travels Into Print

Exploration, Writing, and Publishing with John Murray, 1773-1859

By: Innes M. Keighren,Charles W. J. Withers,Bill Bell

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Travels Into Print

Exploration, Writing, and Publishing with John Murray, 1773-1859

By: Innes M. Keighren,Charles W. J. Withers,Bill Bell

The Age of Exploration and Discovery may well have started in the 15th century, but for the British, the 19th century saw the rise of the British Empire and an explosion in world travel. The travel narratives written during this century were profuse, and by some estimates more travel narratives were written during the first half of the 19th century than in all preceding centuries. These accounts tell of wondrous zoological and botanical finds, of topography never before imagined, and of exotic peoples as well. At the time, there was one publisher, John Murray, known for its utter domination of the travel narrative field. The caliber and profile of their list was known throughout the UK and Europe, and into the US as well. The authors of the house included Jane Austen, Lord Byron, Washington Irving, and Sir Walter Scott. And in its list of travel writing and exploration, the house boasted the authors Charles Darwin and Charles Lyell. Murray s name became as synonymous with travel writing and exploration as it was with literary giants. Travels into Print is a tour through the archives and files of the House of Murray, and marvelous expedition in the geography of travel and exploration writing, knowledge, and reception in the 19th century. Rather than focusing on narratives of a particular region, or scientific area of interest, or particular period, the work uses a source that cuts across all of these areas, the publisher. Steeped in book files, and correspondence about edits, and revisions, sent between Murray and his staff and explorers, the book addresses the ways in which the texts were written, the role of truth in the accounts, correspondence as a form of production, and the writings as travel documents. This is a wonderful history of the book, told from the perspective of a legendary book and author maker.

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395

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226429539

ISBN 13

9780226429533

Majestic River

Mungo Park and the Exploration of the Niger

By: Charles W. J. Withers

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Majestic River

Mungo Park and the Exploration of the Niger

By: Charles W. J. Withers

One of the greatest stories of world exploration ever told. By the late eighteenth century, the river Niger was a 2,000-year-old two-part geographical problem. Solving it would advance European knowledge of Africa, provide a route to commercial opportunity and help eradicate the evil of slavery. Mungo Park achieved lasting fame in 1796 by solving the first part of the Niger problem – which way did the river run? Park died in 1806, in circumstances which are still uncertain, in failing to solve the second – where did the Niger end? Numerous expeditions explored the river in the decades following Park's death, but not until 1830 was its final course revealed following in-the-field exploration. By then, however, the Niger problem had been solved by 'armchair geographers' who had never even visited Africa. Majestic River celebrates Mungo Park's achievements and illuminates his rich afterlife – how and why he was commemorated long after his death. It is also the thrilling story of the many expeditions that sought to determine the Niger's course and the facts of Park's disappearance, as well as a biography of the Niger itself as the river slowly took shape in the European imagination.

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Page Count

491

Publisher

Birlinn Ltd

Published Date

ISBN 10

1788855663

ISBN 13

9781788855662

Geography, Science and National Identity

Scotland Since 1520

By: Charles W. J. Withers

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Geography, Science and National Identity

Scotland Since 1520

By: Charles W. J. Withers

Charles Withers' book brings together work on the history of geography and the history of science with extensive archival analysis to explore how geographical knowledge has been used to shape an understanding of the nation. Using Scotland as an exemplar, the author places geographical knowledge in its wider intellectual context to afford insights into perspectives of empire, national identity and the geographies of science. In so doing, he advances a new area of geographical enquiry, the historical geography of geographical knowledge, and demonstrates how and why different forms of geographical knowledge have been used in the past to constitute national identity, and where those forms were constructed and received. The book will make an important contribution to the study of nationhood and empire and will therefore interest historians, as well as students of historical geography and historians of science. It is theoretically engaging, empirically rich and beautifully illustrated.

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338

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521642027

ISBN 13

9780521642026

Gaelic in Scotland 1698-1981

The Geographical History of a Language

By: Charles W. J. Withers

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Gaelic in Scotland 1698-1981

The Geographical History of a Language

By: Charles W. J. Withers

Surprisingly little is known of the geographical history of Gaelic: where and when it was spoken in the past, and how and why the Gaelic-speaking area of Scotland – the Gaidhealtachd – has retreated and the language declined. A hundred years ago there were 250,000 Gaelic speakers. Now there are 80,000. This book answers four broad questions: What has been the geography of Gaelic in the past? How has that geography changed over time and space? What have been the patterns of language use within the Gaedhealtachd in the past? And what have been the processes of language change? Emphasis is upon the changing geography of the spoken language from 1698 to 1981: from the earliest date for which it is possible to document the expanse of the Gaelic language area to the most recent census to record the numbers speaking Gaelic.

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Page Count

385

Publisher

Birlinn Ltd

Published Date

ISBN 10

178885425X

ISBN 13

9781788854252

Gaelic Scotland

The Transformation of a Culture Region

By: Charles W J Withers

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Gaelic Scotland

The Transformation of a Culture Region

By: Charles W J Withers

This book, originally published in 1988, examines the Highlands and Islands of Scotland over several centuries and charts their cultural transformation from a separate region into one where the processes of anglicisation have largely succeeded. It analyses the many aspects of change including the policies of successive governments, the decline of the Gaelic language, the depressing of much of the population into peasantry and the clearances.

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Page Count

414

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317332806

ISBN 13

9781317332800

Geographies of the Book

By: Charles W.J. Withers

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Geographies of the Book

By: Charles W.J. Withers

The geography of the book is as old as the history of the book, though far less thoroughly explored. Yet research has increasingly pointed to the spatial dimensions of book history, to the transformation of texts as they are made and moved from place to place, from authors to readers and within different communities and cultures of reception. Widespread recognition of the significance of place, of the effects of movement over space and of the importance of location to the making and reception of print culture has been a feature of recent book history work, and draws in many instances upon studies within the history of science as well as geography. 'Geographies of the Book' explores the complex relationships between the making of books in certain geographical contexts, the movement of books (epistemologically as well as geographically) and the ways in which they are received.

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317

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317128982

ISBN 13

9781317128984

Geography, Technology and Instruments of Exploration

By: Fraser MacDonald,Charles W.J. Withers

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Geography, Technology and Instruments of Exploration

By: Fraser MacDonald,Charles W.J. Withers

Focusing on aspects of the functioning of technology, and by looking at instruments and at instrumental performance, this book addresses the epistemological questions arising from examining the technological bases to geographical exploration and knowledge claims. Questions of geography and exploration and technology are addressed in historical and contemporary context and in different geographical locations and intellectual cultures. The collection brings together scholars in the history of geographical exploration, historians of science, historians of technology and, importantly, experts with curatorial responsibilities for, and museological expertise in, major instrument collections. Ranging in their focus from studies of astronomical practice to seismography, meteorological instruments and rockets, from radar to the hand-held barometer, the chapters of this book examine the ways in which instruments and questions of technology - too often overlooked hitherto - offer insight into the connections between geography and exploration.

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314

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Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317128826

ISBN 13

9781317128823

Placing the Enlightenment

Thinking Geographically about the Age of Reason

By: Charles W. J. Withers

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Placing the Enlightenment

Thinking Geographically about the Age of Reason

By: Charles W. J. Withers

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358

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University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226904075

ISBN 13

9780226904078

Geography, Science and National Identity

Scotland Since 1520

By: Charles W. J. Withers

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Geography, Science and National Identity

Scotland Since 1520

By: Charles W. J. Withers

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338

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Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521642027

ISBN 13

9780521642026

The Archaeology of Southeastern Native American Landscapes of the Colonial Era

By: Charles R. Cobb

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The Archaeology of Southeastern Native American Landscapes of the Colonial Era

By: Charles R. Cobb

Honorable Mention, Southern Anthropological Society James Mooney Award Native American populations both accommodated and resisted the encroachment of European powers in southeastern North America from the arrival of Spaniards in the sixteenth century to the first decades of the American republic. Tracing changes to the region’s natural, cultural, social, and political environments, Charles Cobb provides an unprecedented survey of the landscape histories of Indigenous groups across this critically important area and time period. Cobb explores how Native Americans responded to the hardships of epidemic diseases, chronic warfare, and enslavement. Some groups developed new modes of migration and travel to escape conflict while others built new alliances to create safety in numbers. Cultural maps were redrawn as Native communities evolved into the groups known today as the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Catawba, and Seminole peoples. Cobb connects the formation of these coalitions to events in the wider Atlantic World, including the rise of plantation slavery, the growth of the deerskin trade, the birth of the consumer revolution, and the emergence of capitalism. Using archaeological data, historical documents, and ethnohistorical accounts, Cobb argues that Native inhabitants of the Southeast successfully navigated the challenges of this era, reevaluating long-standing assumptions that their cultures collapsed under the impact of colonialism. A volume in the series the American Experience in Archaeological Perspective, edited by Michael S. Nassaney

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Page Count

287

Publisher

University Press of Florida

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813057299

ISBN 13

9780813057293

Book's by Charles W.J. Withers

Placing the Enlightenment

Placing the Enlightenment

Geography and Science in Britain, 1831-1939

Geography and Science in Britain, 1831-1939

Travels Into Print

Travels Into Print

Majestic River

Majestic River

Geography, Science and National Identity

Geography, Science and National Identity

Gaelic in Scotland 1698-1981

Gaelic in Scotland 1698-1981

Gaelic Scotland

Gaelic Scotland

Geographies of the Book

Geographies of the Book

Geography, Technology and Instruments of Exploration

Geography, Technology and Instruments of Exploration

Placing the Enlightenment

Placing the Enlightenment

Geography, Science and National Identity

Geography, Science and National Identity

The Archaeology of Southeastern Native American Landscapes of the Colonial Era

The Archaeology of Southeastern Native American Landscapes of the Colonial Era

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